Baseball: Such joy, such heartbreak in one day

Mississippi State players celebrated and saluted their fans at the same time after knocking off Oklahoma Monday afternoon to win the Tallahassee Regional. Later Monday night, they were the only Mississippi team left standing.

OXFORD — In Oxford Monday night, you had this amazing scene: Tennessee Tech players wildly celebrating on the pristine Ole Miss diamond, dog-piling, high-fiving and a lot more. You had Tennessee Tech fans chanting “O-V-C, O-V-C!” in one of the SEC’s most posh stadiums.

Moments later, you had Mike Bianco, coach of the nation’s No. 4 baseball team, solemnly calling this the best club he has ever coached – and, brother, that is covering some ground, 21 years and 810 victories.

Rick Cleveland

Tennessee Tech’s Golden Eagles – skilled and gritty – played four games in 30 hours and won three of them, using seldom-used pitchers to finish it off. They beat Ole Miss twice Monday, 15-5 and then 3-2. It seemed surreal.

But no more surreal than what happened down in Tallahassee where Mississippi State’s Bulldogs, given up for dead way back in February and March, celebrated a stunning run to a regional championship. All season long, the Bulldogs played second and third fiddle to Ole Miss and Southern Miss, who swept them in a weekend series to begin the season.

And, yet, when Monday was done, one Magnolia State team was left standing – the Mississippi State Bulldogs, playing under an interim coach, Gary Henderson, who could be the first interim coach to ever win Coach of the Year. That’s how well he’s handled what seemed a most miserable situation not that long ago.

Baseball: It can be such a cruel and crazy game. As the late Bart Giamatti, who served as president of Yale and as commissioner of baseball, wrote: “Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.”

Bruce Newman/Oxford Eagle

Mississippi third baseman Tyler Keenan kneels in the outfield following a 3-2 loss to Tennessee Tech in the NCAA Oxford Regional championship game.

It broke the hearts of Ole Miss Rebels, who finished 48-17, Monday.

At the same time, it provided such joy – not only for Mississippi State, but also for Tennessee Tech. This is Mississippi Today – not Tennessee Today – but a word or 40 here about the Tech Golden Eagles, who will leave Oxford with a 52-10 record and with the utmost respect of any smart baseball fan who watched them in this regional tournament. They have skill. They have muscle. And, boy, do they have grit.

Never Miss a Beat. Sign Up for our Daily Newsletter.

As Bianco said, when asked about all the reasons Ole Miss lost: “I think at the end of the day it had more to do with them and the way they played. That is a really outstanding team in that other dugout.”

Tennessee Tech will now play at Texas in a Super Regional. Don’t bet against the Eagles. I wouldn’t.

Now then, Mississippi State: Who would have thought this? Really, who would have dreamed this?

The Bulldogs lost their coach in the first week of the season. They lost those first three games, decisively. They lost their first three SEC games – at home – to Vanderbilt, the team they will play in a Super Regional. They lost seven of their first nine SEC games.

But they kept plugging, kept improving. Younger players gained experience – and confidence. They got better, far better. And they swept No. 1 ranked Florida in the last regular season series to finish 15-15 in the SEC.

Fine, many Mississippi State fans thought, we’ll take that after the way we started.

Now, they want more.

They especially want the Super Regional with Vanderbilt to be played in Starkville, not Nashville. A decision will be announced Tuesday morning. The guess here is Nashville, but I’ve been surprised before – especially by this Mississippi State baseball team.

Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today’s sports columnist, was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in August 2017, joining many of the sports figures he has written about in 50-plus years covering Mississippi sports. He has been honored as Mississippi Sportswriter of the Year a record 11 times by the National Sports Media Foundation. Rick was executive director and historian of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and sports editor of The Clarion-Ledger before joining Mississippi Today. Reach Rick at [email protected]

Filed Under:

Read Next

Thousands of Saints fans in the stands and millions more watching on national TV saw game officials miss an obvious pass interference call that would have allowed the New Orleans Saints to run down the clock, kick a short field goal and advance to the Super Bowl.